Everton Face £40m Dilemma for Liam Delap Transfer

Everton have been told exactly what it will cost to finally land Liam Delap – and it is a figure that would rip up their transfer history.

Chelsea, just a year on from signing the striker, are demanding around £40million to let the 23-year-old leave permanently. That number does not just test Everton’s finances; it would make Delap the most expensive centre-forward the club have ever bought.

A £40m gamble for a misfiring Blue

The fee is striking for a player who scored only once in 28 Premier League appearances for Chelsea last season and just twice in 41 games in all competitions. Yet the London club are unmoved. After paying £30m to bring him in, they want a £10m profit and are in no rush to cash out.

Chelsea’s stance is clear: Delap is not a discard, he is an asset. Anyone who wants to take him from Stamford Bridge will have to pay as if he is a finished article, not a reclamation project.

For Everton, that means entering territory they have never explored for a No.9. Gylfi Sigurdsson’s £45m arrival in 2017 still stands as the club’s record deal, with Richarlison and Tyler Dibling both costing initial fees of £35m. To go close to that bracket again, and to do it for a striker whose Premier League numbers remain modest, would be a bold, contentious move.

Forest’s focal point, Newcastle’s uncertainty

Everton are not alone at the table. Nottingham Forest and Newcastle United are also among the leading contenders, with both clubs viewing Delap as a potential focal point for the next phase of their projects.

At Forest, the plan is obvious. Oliver Glasner has always wanted a clear reference point up front. At Crystal Palace he leaned on Jean-Philippe Mateta; at the City Ground he has already sanctioned a club-record £48m move for Jorgen Strand Larsen. Glasner likes his No.9s big, central and central to everything, and he has instructed the hierarchy to push hard for Delap. Owner Evangelos Marinakis, on his fifth permanent head coach in less than a year, is again ready to fund the vision.

Newcastle’s pursuit comes from a different place. The club is in transition. Eddie Howe’s five-year reign ended on Thursday, and the preferred successor, 38-year-old Matthias Jaissle of Al Ahli, has yet to be installed. Recruitment plans are being drawn up while the dugout still sits in limbo, but Delap remains on the list as a long-term attacking piece for whoever walks through the door next.

Everton’s tightrope

Leeds United are also watching, though from a more distant vantage point. They want competition for Dominic Calvert-Lewin, but with finances tight at Elland Road and a record-breaking £40m move for goalkeeper James Trafford already on the table, Delap at the same price looks like a stretch rather than a certainty.

That leaves Everton weighing up a familiar dilemma. They know Delap well. They chased him before. When he hit 12 Premier League goals for Ipswich Town in 2024/25, he did so in a side that went straight back down. Relegation triggered a £30m release clause and opened the door to serious conversations.

Everton were in that race, pitching the idea of Delap as the leading light of a new era at Hill Dickinson Stadium. The club wanted him as the striker to grow with the project, the face of a rebuilt forward line.

David Moyes, not normally one to play transfer poker in public, broke character and spoke openly about the pursuit. “We’ve had a chance to speak to him, yes. He spoke to three or four clubs,” he said at the time. “He’s given us our opportunity to pitch our case. We’re probably a little bit behind the black ball but hopefully, you never know what happens.”

What happened was Chelsea.

Chelsea’s changing bench, unchanged stance

Delap chose the pull of Champions League football and the chance to reunite with Enzo Maresca, the coach who had helped shape him at Manchester City. On paper, it looked like a neat fit: a young striker, a manager who understood him, a club in need of a new attacking identity.

That script did not last. Maresca left on New Year’s Day. Liam Rosenior came and went, sacked less than four months into a six-and-a-half-year contract. Chelsea have now turned to Xabi Alonso, the latest man tasked with imposing order on a volatile project.

Yet amid the churn on the touchline, the message around Delap has stayed firm. Chelsea do not want to lose him cheaply. They want his next move, if it comes, to reflect the potential they still believe he carries.

So Everton, Forest, Newcastle and Leeds all stare at the same figure: £40m. For some, it is a stretch. For others, a statement. For Everton, it is a question with no easy answer: do they break their mould for a striker who might finally lead the line for a new stadium era, or walk away and watch another club roll the dice?